REEM AL ANI


البرزخ (Soul Sleep)
Video installation, 1 min 4 seconds, color, sound, plasma-cut aluminum, digital tablet
2024
    As a child, I recall being told that our souls left our bodies while we were asleep, wandering among another souls, their adventures coloring our dreams until they returned to our bodies before we woke up. This story draws some truth from the Arabic term Barzakh, the closest term being purgatory i.e. the liminal space where souls go to before they met their creator.

This was one of the earliest instances where I grew conscious of the potential of a spiritual plane separate from the familiar physical plane, sparking a lifelong intrigue surrounding the intangible forces, hidden in plain sight, that occupy everyday life.

The artwork explores how dreams reach through and beyond our bodies, deep into our subsonscious to generate something hyperreal. Through repeatedly drawing animation frames by hand, entering a trance-like state, I wrestle between lucidity and submission. The work’s metal frame is a concentric portal between our waking and dream worlds, pulling viewers from the physical into the metaphysical.





Install documentation
© 2025 Reem Al Ani